Lamb shank is stacked high in a pot and steamed over boiling spices. It may be ordered large, on the bone and angled like a club, or small, shucked and bulging with fat that springs back from the teeth.

Mr. Yakup taught himself English by watching American movies, won a scholarship to Harvard and after graduating started an investment firm in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in China. Now he wants to share Uighur culture with the world.